Uyai-Abasi Etido
A distraught Nigerian man, Mohammed Umoru who was repatriated from Dubai has recounted how fraudster emptied his bank account in Nigeria.
He said this after returning from Dubai with his pregnant wife to see his labors for many years shattered noting that he lost about N1.6 million.
He also said that he is sad following the bank’s reluctance to help him recover his lost funds.
Umoru who is a former Engineering student of Lagos State University stated that the bank has been reluctant in helping him recover his lost funds.
According to him, he travelled while studying Engineering at the University of Lagos to work as a contract construction worker in the UAE.
In his words: “I was a student at Shehu Shagari College of Education in Sokoto, then continued at the University of Lagos. I studied Engineering before travelling out in 2016 to Dubai, then returned in 2022. I finished my contract there before being repatriated. I had come before 2022. The company had issues then I left the company for another one where I worked for another two years. While working, I sought another visa, but it was not granted, and the government had to bring us back home.”
Umoru also revealed left he left his old phone number at home before traveling to Dubai.
According to him, the person using the account had bought airtime worth N50,000 via his lost number. He said he messaged the bank to shut down the account and asked if he could change the number to his foreign number but he couldn’t do so for some reasons.
“When I returned to Nigeria, I went to the bank and asked them to open the restriction placed on the account. I explained to them that the number had been stolen and they should deactivate the number from my account. I didn’t put my foreign number and since I was not in Nigeria I didn’t have a Nigerian number to replace the number. I wrote a letter to them that all transactions should be through my email” he said.
“My next of kin to the account was my younger brother. My brother should have the right to the account if I were dead.
“I obtained my statement of account. I was not married when I opened this account, so my next of kin was not my wife. I found out that the person obtained my death certificate from a court in Jigawa State” he stated.”
Umoru also said that when he returned to Dubai, he deposited an additional 5,000 Dirham and almost immediately, the person began another transaction on the account.
This time, he got back to the bank through a video call with the bank’s representatives to authenticate his identity. He was told that he had been declared dead and that someone claiming to be his next of kin had a death certificate to empty the account containing N1.6 million.